Hope And Disillusionment in the Modern Political Climate
I didn’t research it but my guess is that It must be somewhat abnormal to not have a democratic candidate for president publicly nailed down on July 22nd of an election year, obviously everyone is talking about Harris, and this process unfolding in my pocket gives me a weird little glimpse into the machinations of the political machine in the age of social media.
I was a democrat since I learned what one was, my mother had us writing letters of support to bill Clinton when he ran in 1992… she has the reply letter somewhere, i’d bet. I voted blue in 2016, the first year I actually had it together enough to show up and vote , and I followed all of the liberal leaning Instagram accounts and hashtags.
2020 changed everything, but it’s not like I unfollowed all of the DNC think tank influencers , so i’m literally watching the moving pieces as they get to hyping their next “last hope for democracy” . It’s interesting to me, watching the narrative gel for political internet people like Anne Wu and Quentin Quarentino with their considerable followings.
I try to imagine how much it’s costing the market researchers and whomever is at the source of the messaging of the democratic party.
No, I don’t think it’s George Soros, c’mon man.
I feel like i’m looking inside my old self, the guy who actually was inspired by politicians in the past, I was looking at Obama hanging with Jay-z, Common and Springsteen , and ignoring the drone targeting of civilians, the expansion of the surveillance state and the bailout of the failed banks… I wasn’t ready for even a bite of the whole truth. I liked believing in something, it didn’t matter how real it was.
I can remember of last time I believed in an American politician, I can remember the exact moment, actually. It must’ve been the very early COVID days, and there was a benefit concert being streamed for Bernie Sanders. It was Jim James of My Morning Jacket, doing a somber acoustic version of a song that could easily fit into my top 5 songs of the last 10 years. I couldn’t find the precise video, but i’ll include a similar one.
I was miserably poor and dry drunk, working at a supermarket, and barely keeping ramen noodles in my belly, and late making rent, there was the new reality of a global pandemic. and I still felt hopeful. I promise you I fully thought that man was going to change things, and everything he said checked out with how I felt a nation should be, morally speaking.
Look at what happened with that.
38 year old me knows what 34 year old ev didn’t know: there was no way the democratic machine would ever allow a socialist into the big boy seat, they are too invested in things not changing too much. I’m surprised they didn’t knock the guy off, honestly, given how socialist leaders are handled by the US in other countries where we have economic interests.
that was the last precise moment I had any faith in national politics. I was paying very close attention, back then. To me, and my family it was like following pro sports, we just kept up with it and that’s what we talked about.
so, now i’m watching the new talking points get distributed across the the internet, and I realized all of the intense battles I got in with Trumpers on Facebook in 2016–2020 were just their talking points from Fox vs. mine from MSNBC…that’s it, it’s so canned and predictable.
no one’s mind was ever changed.
since I relate to everything through rock n roll, I'll mention that I grew up on Rage Against the Machine. I have those 3 albums memorized since I was 13, and to this day something clicks in my head, even though i’ve known the lyric for 25 years , it finally makes sense.
“the structure be set and never changing with a ballot pull” -RATM, Down Roedeo
It’s gonna be bad no matter who gets elected, it’s just like which kind of bad is it gonna be? I think it’s too late for democracy. no matter what it’s not going to be good for anyone in your tax bracket (unless Elon musk or Warren Buffet has stumbled upon my blog today.)
This Project 2025 thing that MSNBC and the New York Times keep going on about is scary, but how much of the fear is being drummed up to be used to funnel campaign financing into the Democratic National Convention. The DNC has their scare tactics just like the new York post has it’s daily fear mongering about the migrants. If you have a population that’s scared to death, they’re a lot easier to manipulate.
if you think about it, a trump presidency isn’t the worst thing that could happen to the DNC in terms of fundraising. Shit, even I made donations in 2017 I was so horrified by the guy, and I was making like 12$ an hour at GameStop.
I want my 10$ back.
there’s only one song I can leave this post with:
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